The miniaturization of electronic circuitry such as that provided through integrated circuit chips has created a need for electrical connectors that are compatible with the closely spaced contacts of IC chips. One solution to this problem is through the use of devices known as IC chip carriers. An IC chip carrier is a housing into which a single chip is placed. Connections are made to the appropriate terminals of the IC chip and then fanned out to external contacts on the carrier at spaced distances which are more acceptable for mating with conventional circuitry. In this way a chip contained within an IC chip carrier has external connections on the carrier which may be connected to conventional circuitry.
However, with wafer scale integration technology, a plurality of IC chips may now be fabricated upon a common wafer such that chip carriers for individual chips are no longer feasible. It is possible for a wafer to contain at least fifteen separate IC chips and the external connections for these chips are closely spaced on the perimeter of the wafer. It would not be practical to put the entire wafer in a chip carrier and thereby expand the connections to be compatible with conventional connectors. A design is necessary that will act as an interface between the chips on a wafer and conventional connectors.
An object of this invention is to fabricate an ultra fine line cable capable of providing electrical connection between the IC chip connectors on a wafer to other external connections.
Another object of this invention is to fabricate an ultra fine line cable capable of providing electrical connection between the IC chip connectors on a wafer to the IC chip connectors of another wafer.
Another object of this invention is to develop a method to produce these ultra fine line cables in a manner that provides accuracy but at the same time may be fabricated efficiently and at a relatively low cost.
Still another object of this invention is to utilize the inherent accuracy of additive processes to deposit fine line circuits for the cables.
Still another object of this invention is to develop a fine line cable that has sufficient flexibility to alleviate the need for the exact alignment between components a rigid cable or connector would require.